One of my first ever CDs was the Tarantino Connection. An epic compilation of some of film's finest soundtracks - I loved it. Pulp Fiction came out in 1994 and the soundtrack album went gold. People bought it not because they liked the film but because the music was the reason to see it. When was the last time a film did that?
The 90s had a specific relationship with film music that we've largely stopped replicating. Trainspotting's soundtrack was a statement about who you were. Singles soundtracked an entire scene. Clueless used pop in a way that was actually smart about pop. Reality Bites accidentally became the Generation X playlist whether it meant to or not. These weren't just good licensed tracks - they were cultural statements. The music gave you a reason to go looking for more.
Why did that work then and feel harder now? Part of it is clearance - sync costs have gone up significantly and the economics of licensing a known track for a mid-budget film are genuinely difficult. Studios have got greedy and now want a piece of the pie, so they want to create new songs that they can turn into an income stream. Nearly every big film seems to be stuffed full of new songs made specifically for the movie, which I personally feel has little impact - it holds little cultural depth. Part of it is that streaming has flattened the cultural stakes of discovery. When you can find anything instantly, the act of a film pointing you somewhere feels less urgent.
But I think the bigger thing is intent. Tarantino used music the way a DJ uses it - with a point of view, building something, aware of what a track carries before you put it in a scene. A lot of 90s directors treated music supervision like casting. The track had to earn its place. What genre it was mattered less than what it did.
Is this just nostalgia? Maybe partly. But when you watch something like Boogie Nights and hear how precisely every song is placed - the way the music tells you exactly where you are in history without anyone having to say it - it doesn't feel like accident. It feels like craft that some have decided isn't worth the effort anymore.
I'd argue it's worth it. I'd argue it's the whole job.
And here's the thing - it's coming back. You can hear it in the films being made by directors who grew up on those soundtracks and never forgot what they felt like. The conversation around music supervision is louder now than it's been in decades. Briefs are getting more ambitious. Artists are more open to the right collaboration. The tools to find and clear music have never been better. We're genuinely excited about what's possible right now - and the best soundtracks of the next ten years are going to remind people all over again why this job matters.